Sometimes We Need To Make Sacrifices
by JanieTattoos
Summary: Kurt Weller misses his daughter Gracie's first ballet recital, and his wife Jane is far from happy.


Jane smiled warmly at the piece of paper she was holding in her hands, a bubble of pride welling up inside of her. A few days previously, Gracie had ran home from ballet class, waving the invitation in her hand excitedly.

"Mommy, Mommy! Will you and Daddy come to see me?"

Jane, now sitting at her desk in the SIOC bullpen, read the invitation for what must have been the tenth time.

 _Miss Hedgerows' School for Little Ballerinas would love if the parents of **Grace Weller** could attend their daughter's first ballet recital on Friday 16th March at 4pm. Please notify Miss Hedgerow by Wednesday 14th if you will be attending._

Of course, she and Kurt had instantly said yes, immediately clearing their schedules for that Friday. After that, the recital was all Gracie could talk about. She was so excited that her Mommy and Daddy were finally getting to see her dance on a proper stage, and not just in their apartment in front of the TV. The little girl had went through every single detail with her mother - what tutu she would be wearing (she had quite a few to choose from), what bow she wanted in her hair, what hairstyle she wanted with her bow, what ballet pumps she would wear… Jane had to stop herself from laughing several times. Gracie was just like her dad - organising every single detail.

Jane carefully tucked the invitation behind a photo frame on her desk, the one that contained a photo of Gracie from when she was just two days old. Just like she'd promised, she and Kurt had completely cleared their schedules for the afternoon. She'd made sure that she'd finished all of her paperwork from their latest case so that nothing would be holding her up. Jane looked down at her watch. 3:30pm - they needed to be going now if they wanted to get a good seat.

Jane grabbed her leather jacket from her desk chair and made her way over to Kurt's office. He'd been in a meeting with Director Hirst for the past hour, but he'd promised Jane that he'd be done in time for Gracie's recital. She knocked softly on the door. Both heads turned to look at her as she came in. Kurt's face immediately looked apologetic.

"Can you excuse me for a moment, Director Hirst?" Kurt rushed as he went over to Jane, giving her a knowing look.

"Of course…" Director Hirst trailed off.

Jane looked quizzically at Kurt as he closed the door behind them. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

"I'm really sorry Jane, but I'm gonna be a little bit late to Gracie's recital, Director Hirst still has a few more things to run through with me-"

"Seriously, Kurt?" Jane stared right at him. "We _both_ cleared our schedules so that we could _both_ be there for Gracie, and now you're saying you're gonna be late for it?"

Kurt closed his eyes briefly. "I didn't say that I'll be missing the entire thing! Just a few minutes of it. Please, Jane. I'll be five, ten minutes late, max. I promise".

"Fine," Jane agreed begrudgingly. "But if you're any later than that, then Gracie's not gonna be the only one who'll be disappointed".

 **Two hours later**

Gracie hopped on the spot, sucking on a strawberries-and-cream flavoured lollipop as her mother fiddled with the key to their apartment. Despite her daughter being a little bundle of happiness, Jane had very little happiness inside her at that moment. Of course, Gracie was amazing in the show - she'd hopped and twirled around the stage, her little black curls bouncing on her head as she'd carried out each step. Jane was so proud of her, but her happiness for Gracie was now clouded by her disappointment in Kurt.

He never showed. She'd waited five, ten, even fifteen minutes before she'd given up. The "Reserved" seat beside her had lay empty for the entire show. When Gracie had finished her performance, she'd run down to her mother, asking why her Daddy wasn't there too. Jane didn't know what to tell her. How could she make her three-year-old understand the job that her father did?

Jane turned the key in the lock slowly, and turned the handle. Gracie bursted into the apartment as soon as there was enough room for her to fit through the door. She immediately ran over to the couch, to where her father was sitting. He was holding a beer bottle, taking long, slow chugs from it. It was already half-empty. His tie was stretched out, the way he always did it after a particulary tough day. Gracie jumped up beside him on the couch. He put on a smile and wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey, sweetheart!" he said, tickling her cheek. "How was your show?"

"Really good!" Gracie replied happily, but her smile soon faded as she remembered. "Why were you not there?"

Kurt's smile faded too as he struggled to respond to his three-year-old. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that, sweetie. I, uh, I had a big grown up meeting that I wasn't allowed to leave. I'm really sad that I missed your show," he added, wrapping one of her curls around his finger.

"Me too," Gracie agreed, looking up at her father.

"Hey, how about I make it up to you? Why don't we go to the zoo this weekend, yeah? And you can always do your ballet routine for me later, if you want. I'd love to see it!"

"Yeah!" Gracie squealed excitedly, hugging her father.

Kurt looked back at his wife with a smile on his face, but it quickly faded when he saw her icy stare. He turned back to Gracie.

"Hey, sweetheart, why don't you go and play in your room for a bit, yeah?"

"Okay!" Gracie replied contently, jumping off the couch and skipping into her room. Once he heard the door close, he then turned to his wife.

"Jane…" he started.

"Don't." She cut him off harshly. "Don't you dare make excuses. What the hell, Kurt? You _promised_ me, you promised _Gracie_ that you'd be there! I must've looked like an idiot, checking my watch every thirty seconds. You _knew_ how excited she was for that show, you _knew_ how much she wanted _both_ of us to be there, but oh no, work always comes first for Kurt Weller! So, go on then, what was so fucking important in that meeting that caused you to miss our daughter's first recital?"

Kurt stared at the beer bottle in his hands. He couldn't look at her in the eyes - it was too painful.

He sighed before replying. "Hirst thinks she knows where Roman is," he whispered.

Jane had to grasp the table chair behind her to stop her knees from caving in.

"What? Are you serious?" she whispered, barely able to speak.

Kurt nodded. "That's why I was late. She told me that this morning, her team picked up facial recognition of Roman outside a cottage. It's an hour away from here".

"Oh my God," Jane whispered in disbelief. She slowly sank into the chair beside her. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I wanted to, _so badly,_ but Hirst told me not to. We needed to double check that it was him. Plus, I knew if I had told you, you would've immediately dropped everything and went looking for him, and I knew that at least one of us needed to be there for Gracie," he replied.

"And was it?" Jane asked fearfully. "Was it him?"

Kurt waited a beat before replying. "Yes. It's him, Jane."

"Oh God," Jane cried, before breaking down completely. The burden, the grief that she had been carrying ever since Roman had disappeared was finally lifting. She put her head in her hands, unable to stop the emotions from pouring out.

She hadn't even noticed that Kurt had gotten up until he was right there beside her, pulling her to him. He held her tight as she cried, trying to comfort his wife in any way he could. It was the least he could do after the pain he'd caused her.

Eventually, Jane composed herself, but that didn't cause Kurt to let go of her. He still held onto her tightly, stroking her hair.

"I just… I can't believe it," she choked. "I've spent so long searching for him that I… I never thought we'd actually _find_ him".

"I know," he said gently, "me neither. But we did."

At his words, it was as if something was set in motion. Jane suddenly sat up straight, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Wait, Kurt, we gotta, we gotta find him, if we don't go now then it could be too late, and I'll never forgive myself if I-"

"Hey, hey," he said calmly, stroking her cheek. "It's alright, we've checked out everything and it turns out that Roman's been living in that cottage for a year, maybe more. He's not going anywhere. We're gonna go and get him first thing tomorrow morning, okay? And those are Hirst's orders, not mine".

Jane took a deep breath and smiled weakly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Okay," she whispered, before hugging him. She buried her face in his neck and wrapped her arms around him, breathing in his scent.

"We're gonna get him, Jane," he whispered into her ear. "We're gonna get him, and when we do, we're gonna bring him home."


End file.
